


Interlude

by tchele



Series: Runaway series [3]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 20:36:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17029599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tchele/pseuds/tchele
Summary: A ficlet if you will in the Runaway series. Set after Come Together - Nick and Ellie’s first Christmas together as they prepare for the birth of their son. Set after 16.02 Love Thy Neighbor.





	Interlude

Ellie Bishop loved Christmas, ever since she was a little girl she loved the smells and sights associated with the holiday. Ever since she left home, her tree would go up the weekend after Thanksgiving, as soon as she returned home from wherever she spent the holiday without fail. She loved every aspect of the holiday, but this year things were different. It was mid December and her apartment showed no Christmas spirit. 

The Monday after their return from Oklahoma Nick and Ellie met with the realtor after work and made arrangements to check out some properties. They spent all their free time the last few weeks trying to find a new place to live and it seemed like by the time they returned to Ellie’s at the end of the day it was too late to decorate or she was too exhausted to do anything beyond cook dinner.

Saturday morning before Christmas 

Ellie awoke to an empty bed and the sound of Christmas music coming from her living room. She looked at the clock on her bedside table and was shocked to see it was after ten in the morning. She propelled herself out of bed and made her way to the living room and the sight that greeted her brought tears to her eyes. In her kitchen her two nieces were making cookies with Nick’s niece Amanda. “What are you guys doing here?” Ellie asked.

“We came to bring Christmas to you Aunt Ell!” Belle answered.

“Hey Ellie. Uncle Nick said that you guys have been so busy looking for a place and with work that you hadn’t had the time to get ready for Christmas. So since school is out I volunteered to come make Christmas cookies with these two.” Amanda explained.

“Where is Nick?” Ellie asked.

“He’s out on a secret mission, but he’ll be back in a bit. Want some coffee?” Amanda replied.

“Uhhh no coffee, but can you put the kettle on though? I’d love some tea. I’m going to go get dressed then I’d love to make cookies with you.” Ellie said.

An hour and a half later the cookies had all been baked and Amanda and Ana were making frosting in the kitchen while Ellie and Belle took a break to watch Christmas movies on the couch. A noise at the door distracted Ellie from the movie and she moved to open the door. Standing on the other side of the door were Nick and George, beside them a beautiful and fragrant live Christmas tree. “You got me a tree?” Ellie said excitedly.

“I know how sad you were that we hadn’t had time to go get a tree or do any of the Christmas things you love. I mentioned it to George and he and the girls came to help. I knew you had been having trouble sleeping lately so I called Lucia to see if she could come hang out with the girls while we went to get the tree. When Amanda heard what was going on she volunteered to come over and bake cookies.” Nick replied.

“I can’t believe you did all this.” Ellie said to Nick. “And I can’t believe you came all this way to bring me Christmas!” She said excitedly to George.

“When you FaceTimed with the kids I could tell you weren’t your usual cheery Christmasy self. So I called Nick and we made a plan. JB and James are at a soccer clinic or they would have come too.” George replied.

“How long do I get you?” Ellie asked.

“We leave Monday. So we’ve got plenty of time to get this place decorated and help with all your traditions. Mom even sent some of your favorites with us since you can’t come home this year.” George answered. “Now can we get this into the apartment? It’s getting heavy.”

Nick, George, Amanda, and Ana worked together to get the tree into the apartment and in place and then Nick and George got the decorations out of storage while the rest of the group went back to cookie making. By the time the cookies were decorated the lights were on the tree and it was ready to be decorated. Ellie supervised the placement of the ornaments while sipping hot chocolate on the couch.

Hours later the tree was decorated, the empty boxes for the decorations were put away, and the apartment had a decidedly Christmas vibe to it. Complete with stockings hung from the fireplace for each of them with ceramic Santa holders and a third holder and tiny stocking for Clay courtesy of JB. They’d ordered pizza for dinner as no one felt like cooking.

“Ok my helpers. Now that we have brought Christmas to this place I need to go. Some friends are having a party tonight and I promised to make an appearance. Nick, Ellie I will see you both for Christmas dinner at our house, right?” Amanda said as she took her plate to the kitchen.

“We will be there, tell your mom thanks for letting us have you for the day and we will see you Tuesday. Let us know if there is anything we can bring, ok?” Nick said.

“Thanks for all your help Amanda.” Ellie echoed.

Once Amanda left the girls and Nick took the dishes to the kitchen and began to clean up the remnants of dinner dishes and their baking projects, Ellie asked what the plan was for the evening.

“Well I wondered if you would like to spend some time with the girls. I thought Nick and I might grab a drink or something and then I’ll pick the girls up to spend the night at his place since he’s not using it.” George answered with a salacious grin. 

“I don’t know how I feel about you bonding with my boyfriend.” Ellie replied with her eyes narrowed.

“I’ve been in his shoes Ell, three times. I know once JB hit the third trimester she didn’t want to do anything but sleep when she got home from work. I know you guys have been busy getting ready to move and I just thought he might like a night out, and you might like a movie night in with your nieces.” George explained.

“I’d love a low key movie night with them, and I am exhausted all the time. I can’t seem to get comfortable to sleep, not sure how I’m going to stick to my plan of working until I have him with the move and everything when I’m not sleeping.” Ellie confessed.

“Nick mentioned you found a place. You going to be moved in before he gets here?” George asked.

“We should be. I can’t wait for everyone to see it. It’s a place I see us staying in awhile. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, full basement with laundry hookup. When we first started talking about what we wanted we planned to use the third bedroom as an office and art studio, but since we have the full basement the third bedroom will be a guest room at least for now.” Ellie answered.

“I’m happy for you guys. It sounds like a great place.” George said.

“It is, I can’t wait to get moved in and get everything ready for him to bring him home.” Ellie replied.

“Well it sounds like everything is coming together for the new place, and this place looks like it’s Christmas time.” George said.

“I can’t thank you enough for coming and doing all this, and I can’t get over the stockings you brought.” Ellie replied.

“That was all JB. Does the new place have a mantle?” George asked.

“It does, beautiful fire place in the family room.” Nick answered. “Dishwasher is running, and everything is cleaned up. You ready to head out?”

“Sure thing. Girls? Be good for Aunt Ellie. We will be back in a couple hours.” George said.

Ellie and the girls settled in with a Christmas movie on the tv and popcorn while Nick and George went to do some last minute Christmas shopping.

“Remind me to never get on your bad side.” Nick said as he and George headed up the steps of Ellie’s apartment, arms full of bags.

“Don’t break my sisters heart and we won’t have a problem. I never liked Jake but I never would’ve done anything if he hadn’t cheated on my sister. He’s lucky that’s all I did. I like you Nick, I think you are good for Ell.” George replied.

“I never met him, and nobody talks about what happened or even about him. I only knew she had been married before because she mentioned it in passing once right after I joined the team. I also heard murmurings about Gibbs blocking his access to the Navy Yard though.” Nick said.

“Wouldn’t surprise me. The first time I met Gibbs was right after she found out. He came to Oklahoma to make sure she was ok, and then spent Thanksgiving with us before they drove back to D.C. I think he’s so careful about his team because they become his family.” George replied.

“Some of us more than others, but he’s definitely treats his team like family.” Nick said as he unlocked the door to the apartment.

Nick took his bags to the bedroom while George took his bag to Ellie and dropped it in front of her. “JB swore by this when she was pregnant and made me go find one when she found out you weren’t sleeping.” George said before turning to his daughters. “Come on girls. You will see Aunt Ell in the morning.”

“I’m going to take them to my place and I’ll be right back. I have something for you so don’t go to bed yet.” Nick said to Ellie before dropping a quick kiss on her lips.

Ellie took the opportunity to change into her pajamas and get more comfortable while Nick was gone. Once that was accomplished she opened up the bag George had left with her and pulled out a large oddly shaped pillow. She immediately pulled out her phone and dialed her sister in law. JB answered on the third ring. “Hey Ell, how are things going? How are my girls?” She asked.

“The girls are good. They spent the day making cookies with Nick’s niece, I helped but they did most of the work, and helped decorate the tree. Thanks so much the stockings and sending my brother and the girls here. They were just what I needed. Nick just took the three of them to his place for the night.” Ellie answered. “Now before he gets back tell me about this pillow.”

“It will change your life, trust me. When I was pregnant with Ana I was miserable and someone told me about the pillow, it helped so much. Oh looks like George is beeping in. I better go, the girls probably want to say goodnight and I’m sure he wants to talk to James. I hope the pillow helps.” JB said as she disconnected the call.

Ellie put the cover on the pillow and put it in the bedroom. She really wanted to go to bed, but promised Nick she’d wait for him so she went to sit on the couch. Soon she heard the deadbolt click and Nick let himself in. “Remember on Thanksgiving when we went shopping? I bought something and I wouldn’t let you see it?” Nick asked.

“I remember now, I forgot all about it though until this moment. That night I had a lot on my mind.” Ellie replied thinking about how that was the night they discussed having more children in the future.

“I saw this at the store and I just knew I had to buy it.” Nick said as he handed Ellie a small unwrapped box. 

Inside, nestled in tissue paper, was an ornament. It was a beige frame with the year stamped at the bottom and at the top it had the phrase ‘tiny little miracle in the making’ printed in script. In the frame Nick had placed a copy of the very first ultrasound Ellie had all those months ago. 

“Nick, it’s beautiful. That really is our little miracle. You know It’s been a hard year, but now that it’s Christmas, I’m so glad to spend it with you and I can’t wait to see what next year holds.” Ellie replied with tears in her eyes.

“Those are happy tears, right?” Nick asked.

“Yes, very happy tears, and thank you again for this weekend. My brother and the girls? Just what I needed, and Amanda was so sweet to come and help.” Ellie answered.

“Anytime. Amanda said to tell you she’d come help take the decorations down before she goes back to school and help pack up anything we need her to ahead of the move. Just tell her when.” Nick replied.

“We can make a plan for that tomorrow, right now I’m going to bed to try out George and JB’s gift. You coming?” Ellie asked. 

“I think I’m going to wrap some presents first. I picked up some things for the girls and James that I thought we could send home with them tomorrow. Then I’ll be in. You go ahead, get some sleep.” Nick answered.

Two hours later when Nick was ready to turn in for the night he found Ellie fast asleep and looking more relaxed than he’d seen her in weeks. He took a quick photo and sent it to George with his thanks. As Nick’s head hit the pillow he reflected on what a great day it had been and how lucky he was. A year earlier he had basically volunteered to spend Christmas in Afghanistan because he didn’t have anyone to spend the holidays with and now he was looking forward to this Christmas and every Christmas to come, with his family. 

~fin for now.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this wasn’t too out of character. My life is getting a bit busy the next couple weeks with the holidays coming up but I hope to have the next(final?) installment in this series up in the new year. Merry Christmas!


End file.
